Overview
Takara Bio is revolutionizing spatial transcriptomics by providing researchers with Takara Bio Seeker (Slide-seqV2) and Takara Bio Trekker (Slide-tags), two groundbreaking kits that allow users to map gene expression at single-cell resolution. While these kits generate highly valuable biological insights, many of Takara Bio's customers—biopharma companies, research institutions, and core labs like the Stanford University School of Medicine Genomics Core—struggled with the challenge of processing the massive datasets these kits produce.
Instead of forcing customers to set up their own high-performance computing (HPC) environments or cloud workflows, Takara Bio sought a white-labeled, turnkey informatics platform that would allow any scientist to process data effortlessly and at scale
Takara Bio partnered with LatchBio to deliver a branded cloud portal where customers could seamlessly analyze their spatial data—removing the need for complicated setup, expensive cloud engineering, or reliance on external bioinformaticians.
The Challenge: Making Spatial Data Analysis Accessible to Customers
Takara Bio's kits unlock unprecedented spatial insights, but customers faced major hurdles in processing their data:
Massive Computational Burden: Datasets from Seeker and Trekker kits can be terabytes in size, requiring powerful cloud infrastructure.
Limited Bioinformatics Expertise: Many of Takara Bio's customers are biologists, not computational scientists, and lack the skills to set up and run pipelines themselves.
Long Analysis Times & High Costs: Customers were delayed by weeks setting up workflows on their own, often relying on expensive third-party analysis services.
Takara Bio needed a solution that would package bioinformatics directly into their product experience—allowing customers to use the kits without facing the complexity of data processing.
We don’t have an army of bioinformaticians... Our customers needed a straightforward, efficient solution without endless HPC requests or massive cloud costs.”
Evaluating Potential Solutions
Takara Bio explored multiple options, including:
AWS & GCP: Allowed raw compute power but required significant engineering and devops resources—not feasible for most customers.
Other Bioinformatics Cloud Platforms: Came with high licensing fees and slow deployment cycles, limiting Takara Bio's ability to iterate quickly and scale to different customer needs.
Why LatchBio?
Takara Bio selected LatchBio's white-labeled bioinformatics platform for its ability to provide a fully branded, managed cloud solution for customers:
Fully Packaged Analysis Experience: Customers access an intuitive, branded Takara Bio Bioinformatics Cloud directly from Takara Bio, removing the burden of setup.
Rapid Deployment & Updates: “The greatest advantage is how easily we deploy new software packages, tools, and workflows compared to other platforms…”
Scientist-Friendly UI: “The platform is sleek, modern, and significantly easier for scientists to navigate—no coding required.”
Pay-As-You-Go Pricing for Users: “Latch was consistently the most affordable option in virtually every cost analysis we did.”
Enterprise-Grade Security & Compliance: Latch’s infrastructure meets GxP, HIPAA, and SOC 2 compliance standards, making it enterprise-ready.
Seamless Integration: Delivering a White-Labeled Cloud Portal
Takara Bio used Latch's developer-friendly Nextflow SDK to rapidly integrate their bioinformatics workflows into a branded cloud solution without needing internal cloud engineering resources. Customers can now log into Takara Bio's Bioinformatics Cloud (powered by Latch) and process their data instantly.
Instant Workflow Access: “With Latch, I can push out an enhancement, and our customers immediately see the new version.”
No Bioinformatics Required: Customers can run analyses with a few clicks, eliminating the need for command-line or cloud expertise.
Scalable, Managed Infrastructure: Takara Bio no longer needs to manage cloud infrastructure or worry about compute resources—it all scales automatically.
Real-World Impact: Stanford University School of Medicine Genomics Core
Xuhuai Ji, Genomics Director, Stanford University School of Medicine. The core processes Takara Bio Seeker and Trekker datasets to support Stanford labs. Before LatchBio, Stanford's core repeatedly hit limits on in-house servers and tooling:
Uploads stalled and pipelines failed on campus servers (e.g., 'always 99%… I gave up'), and jobs ran out of memory. — Xuhuai Ji
Most biologists couldn't easily run or iterate analyses without heavy bioinformatics help.
With Takara Bio's Latch-powered Bioinformatics Cloud, Stanford's Genomics Core saw immediate improvements:
Faster Turnaround at the Core: “Now I can … run, not stopped seven twenty four. That's really, really useful for a … service center.“ — Xuhuai Ji
More Accessible to Scientists: “Window based interface and user friendly… [Biologists] love [it] the most… [Here] you don't need … coding.“ — Xuhuai Ji (Transcript 2)
Eliminated HPC Headaches: “I also tried to run Takara Bio pipelines [on the Stanford] server… every time the same issue—out of memory… I gave up.“ — Xuhuai Ji
— Xuhuai Ji, Genomics Director, Stanford University School of Medicine.
Key Outcomes for Takara Bio and Their Customers
By embedding LatchBio into their customer experience, Takara Bio transformed the accessibility of spatial bioinformatics:
Expanded Market Reach: Customers who previously lacked bioinformatics capabilities can now fully leverage Takara Bio's kits.
Eliminated Infrastructure Complexity: No need for customers to manage cloud costs, DevOps, or HPC setups.
Accelerated Data Insights: Customers complete analyses in hours, not weeks, increasing the value of Takara Bio's kits.
Higher Customer Retention & Satisfaction: The simplified user experience makes Takara Bio's technology far easier to adopt and use.
The LatchBio Advantage: Unmatched Support & Reliability
Beyond the technical capabilities, Takara Bio credits LatchBio's support team for ensuring a smooth rollout:
Latch’s team goes above and beyond... The responsiveness and dedication we experience are unmatched.”
Honestly, I don’t know how they could get any better... They’re like the model company.”
The Future: Scaling White-Labeled Spatial Informatics
Takara Bio and LatchBio continue to expand their partnership, focusing on:
Nextflow-Based Pipelines: Further optimizing Seeker and Trekker workflows for massive-scale processing.
Advanced Cell & Tissue Analytics Integrating annotation tools, ligand-receptor analysis, and machine learning insights.
ATighter Product Integration: Making Takara Bio's bioinformatics workflows even more seamless for customers through automated pipelines and AI-driven insights.
We want our customers to have it all—sample prep, sequencing, rapid QC, and truly powerful downstream analytics... With LatchBio’s flexibility, we can deploy sophisticated pipelines incredibly fast.”
— Alecks Kutchma, Takara Bio
Conclusion
Takara Bio's partnership with LatchBio sets a new industry standard for spatial bioinformatics solutions:
Turnkey, white-labeled analysis platform fully integrated into the customer experience.
Eliminated informatics barriers for customers, allowing widespread adoption of Takara Bio kits.
Significantly faster data processing with zero computational setup required.
Unparalleled customer support & reliability, making Takara Bio's offering best-in-class.
Honestly, I don't see how they could possibly get any better... They're the gold standard.”